Hull for boats



1941- A. w. w. VAN HOORN HULL FOR BOATS Filed Jan. 5, 1939 .M 2 T# M N Mm WW w l A M W MB A Patented Aug. 5, 1941 n UNITED PATENT f OFFICE2,251,621 HULL FORBGATS Albert van Hoorn, 'Holly0ak,1Del. ApplicationJanuary 2, 1939, serial No. 249,029

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a boat con- .struction and hullshape,more particularly to that type known as express cruisers and speedboats.

It is essential that boats of that character-may be turned at high speedwithout cap'sizing or shipping water, and with a minimum of slippage. Itis therefore an object of the invention to provide a boatconstructionwhich will reduce such hazards to a minimum;

Another object of the invention is the provisionof 'a boat constructionwhich will. permit the retention of certain desirable features, such asa round bottom, that make for good designing from the-standpoint offorward motion ofa speed boat, but which'must be compromisedoreliminated in order to secure reasonablesafety in turning at highspeeds.

Another object is the provisionof a boat construction novel in form,reliable and efficient in functioning, and simple and inexpensive tomanufacture.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in certainnovelfeatures of construction and arrangement of parts as will behereafter more fully described, and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing, which discloses the preferred embodiment of the invention.

Referring to the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a hull embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is a center line cross section of the complete hull.

Figure 3 is a half cross section of the complete hull in the fore partthereof.

In high speed power boats, the tendency of a rounded hull is to squat inthe water as one reaches speed, the bow going up and the stern goingdown in the water. To overcome this there has been a tendency to flattenout the V shape of the rear of the body so that at the stern the boatapproaches being completely fiat giving an aqua-planing effect. This isvery helpful in going ahead but it makes the boat dangerous in making aturn because the stern end of the boat will not swish around but insteadits relatively flat edges hit the side of the water and tend to overturnthe boat.

In accordance with the invention, to overcome this difficulty, the hullis provided with a plurality of surfaces arranged longitudinally and.offset outwardly with respect to the bottom or bilge section having theusual keel. These surfaces extend preferably from stem to stern andsubstantially parallel with the keel. Contiguous with these offsetsurfaces are surfaces or sections forming :the sides of the boat- I .7

Within the broad'scope of this invention the hull may be-constructed asa'single section having the contours specified herein but the inven-';tion lends itself particularly to construction in accordance with myco-pending application Serial #238,326, filed November 2, '1938, forProcess of constructing boats, and. on this account I shall moreparticularly describe the invention in that form.

' .Referring' tcithe' drawing the hull surface is formed of twobottom-or central portions I and -2 meeting I .at the keel .line 3 andtwo side por- "tion's Land 5 which are offset orstaggered outwardlyfromthe central portions to provide longitudinal surfaces 6 .and .1substantially. transverse to :the body of the hull and longitudinal ofthe boat;

When the hull. is constructed in accordance with the invention o'fmyprevious application Labove. referred to, these separate surfaces aremade as'separatese'ctionsof the huh I, 2,1 and 5. These sections areeach constructed with a longitudinal rr'ieniber, running the length ofthe section on eachof its longitudinal edges, and with rib sectionsextending transversely between the longitudinal members. Thesemembers'and rib sections form a frame to which the skin is attached. Thevarious sections are fastened together to form the complete hull bybolting together the adjacent longitudinal members together. All of thisis fully described in my copending application Serial Number 238,326.

Toward the stern, as will be seen from Figure 2, the sections 1, 2, 4and 5 are all convex in cross section to permit of easy turning, buttoward the bow as seen in Figure 3, the sections 4 and 5 will preferablybe concave, in accordance with good hull construction.

Thus the keel 3 itself may be formed by fastening together the centrallongitudinal members 8 and 9 of the two bottom sections by bolts 31a,and the central sections may be fastened to the side sections by boltingtogether the longitudinal members In and ll of the sections 45 to theadjacent longitudinal members l2 and I3 of the central sections 1 and 2.

The amount of the overhang provided by these surfaces I0ll will varywith the design of the hull and it will vary from bow to stern of theboat. In some respects these surfaces lO-l I, at the bow of the boat,play a different part from the same surfaces at the rear.

During motion of the boat when the bow is lifted out of the water, thesurfaces l0 and H hold the spray and bow wave down, while that portionof the surfaces l8 and H which is under the water provides a pocketbetween them and the central section of the hull holding the main slipstream of the water beneath the boat. At the same time this constructionoffering a minimum resistance to the sideward movement of the boatduring turning, thus permitting turning at high speed without danger ofcapsizing.

It will thus be seen that if the hull is forced sideways through thewater to the left, as seen in Figure 2, the sections I and 4 affordreduced resistance because of their curved contours, while the surfaceII is itself in the lee of the body of the hull and thus has its ownresistance reduced.

Thus by this construction I gain the advantages of a high speed hullwith the ease of steering and turning more comparable to the roundedhull while at the same time the construction gives a high speed hull andholds down the spray and bow wave, thus increasing the dirigibility,efficiency, safety and comfort of the hull.

Since certain changes may be made in the above construction anddifferent embodiments of the invention could be made without departingfrom the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in theabove description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall beinterpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended tocover all of the generic and specific features of the invention hereindescribed, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as amatter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secureby Letters Patent is:

1. A hull of the type having progressively curved sections throughout,comprising a plurality of sections on each side of the vertical centralplane, each section comprising a complete independent unit extending ina direction from stem to stern and adjacent edges of said sectionsterminating in a common plane substantially parallel to the center lineof the hull, the upper of said sections being offset outwardly toprovide a longitudinally extending downwardly and inwardly facingsurface to stabilize the hull.

2. A hull of the type having progressively curved sections throughout,comprising a plurality of sections on each side of the vertical centralplane, each section comprising a complete independent unit extending ina direction from stem to stern, the lower of said sections having alongitudinal stringer along its upper edge and the upper of saidsections having a longitudinal stringer on its lower edge adapted toengage said first mentioned stringer throughout its length along a planesubstantially parallel to the center line, said upper section beingoffset outwardly from said lower section and said last mentionedstringer being of materially greater width measured transverse to thesurface of the hull, whereby when said stringers are attached togetherto form the hull, there is provided a longitudinally extending anddownwardly and inwardly facing surface to stabilize the hull.

3. A hull of the type having progressively curved sections throughout,said skeleton comprising a plurality of sections on each side of thevertical center plane of the hull extending in the direction from stemto stern, each comprising a self-supporting frame, each of said sectionshaving a longitudinal stringer curved to correspond to the curvature ofthe hull, on each edge thereof, and a plurality of rib sections alsocurved to correspond to the curvature of the hull extending between andfirmly attached to said stringers to form with said stringers aself-supporting hull section, the adjacent stringer of the hull sectionson each side of the said center plane lying in a common plane parallelto the center line of the hull and being firmly attached together toform said hull, the upper of said adjacent stringers being of greaterwidth transverse to the surface of the hull, whereby when said sectionsare joined said upper section will extend beyond the lower to provide alongitudinally extending downwardly and inwardly facing surface tostabilize the hull.

ALBERT W. W. VAN HOORN.

